The FCC should be “wary” of proposals to allow wireless microphone use in spectrum bands “that may present future opportunities for flexible, mobile broadband use,” CTIA said in a letter Monday to the FCC in docket 12-268. CTIA cited specifically the FCC’s look at such bands as the 1435-1525 MHz band for commercial wireless services. “To the extent the Commission does consider such bands, the Commission should resist calls to substantially increase the allocation to wireless microphone use,” CTIA said. “For example, granting wireless microphone access to the entire 1.4 GHz band would result in significant increase in the amount of spectrum beyond the capacity that may be lost in the 600 MHz band. In effect, such a proposal would replace capabilities present in the current regulations -- twelve megahertz of spectrum capacity -- with access to 90 megahertz.”

Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage of Sprint and T-Mobile Friday with hold ratings for both. Stifel said it saw little prospect regulators will warm to a merger between the two. Analysts cited questions about T-Mobile’s ability to buy more low-band spectrum and continuing threats from Verizon and AT&T, which will be "ramping up marketing of mobile video services” this year. “We continue to believe that [Sprint] remains at an operational disadvantage to both Verizon and AT&T,” the report said. “Although the recent shutdown of its IDEN [integrated digital enhanced network], in combination with its larger Network Vision strategy should drive margins higher over the course of the next several years, we believe the company will continue to struggle to add a significant number of postpaid subscribers in the near-term.”

Policymakers have had enough of T-Mobile’s requests for preferred treatment in the TV incentive auction and are just saying no to a larger spectrum reserve -- spectrum set aside for competitors without extensive low-band holdings in a particular market -- Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter alleged Friday in a blog post. T-Mobile CEO John Legere has made the issue a top regulatory priority for the carrier (see 1507020057). “After Periscoping his way through Washington, John Legere has left a path of alienation in his wake,” Spalter wrote. “Rather than declaring victory for convincing the FCC to block national rivals AT&T and Verizon from bidding on up to 30 MHz of prime spectrum in the upcoming broadcast spectrum auctions, Legere is seeking to publicly bully the commission into giving his company right of first refusal over even more bandwidth and at an even steeper discount.” T-Mobile is not responding to Spalter, a spokesman said.

Notifications on cellphones inevitably impair a person’s ability to focus on a given task, said a new Florida State University study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. “The level of how much it affected the task at hand was really shocking,” said Courtney Yehnert, an FSU research coordinator. “Although these notifications are generally short in duration, they can prompt task-irrelevant thoughts, or mind-wandering, which has been shown to damage task performance,” the paper said. “Cellular phone notifications alone significantly disrupt performance on an attention-demanding task, even when participants do not directly interact with a mobile device during the task.”

The Obama administration is lagging behind the needs of industry as it struggles to make more spectrum available for wireless broadband, Free State Foundation Visiting Fellow Gregory Vogt said Friday in a paper. “The time to locate and begin reallocating more spectrum for mobile broadband use is now,” Vogt wrote. The administration’s 2010 plan to reallocate 500 MHz of spectrum is out of date and work on the plan is “lagging,” he said. “Reallocating spectrum takes time, a lot of it, and therefore the government needs to redouble its efforts now to find more spectrum for commercial mobile broadband use,” Vogt said. “Because government is sluggish to respond to the market, the need should be classified and considered ‘urgent.’”

The Wireless ISP Association defended its proposal to establish a professional installer program for TV white spaces devices and the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band. The FCC should keep in place rules that allow professional installation in both bands, WISPA said. “The effectiveness of a professional installation certification program will benefit all spectrum users,” the group said. “To that end, WISPA invites stakeholders to work with WISPA to help develop an effective program that can apply in all spectrum bands.” The letter was posted in docket 14-165. NAB has questioned the viability of professional installer programs, especially in the 3.5 GHz band. “Simply put, experience has confirmed that professional installation is unreliable and inadequate,” said an NAB letter in the same docket. “Further, professional installation is not appropriate for consumer devices that are likely to be deployed in the 3.5 GHz band, and mere tweaks to the rules regarding the definition of 'professional installation' are unlikely to address the fundamental problems.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau settlement with TerraCom and YourTel America Thursday "highlights the problem of making policy through enforcement actions," said Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in a statement later that day. The companies agreed to jointly pay a $3.5 million civil penalty and take actions to improve their data security practices, as part of a bureau order and consent decree to resolve an investigation of possible Lifeline USF customer privacy violations (see 1507090035). YourTel also agreed to improve its compliance with Lifeline eligibility and de-enrollment rules. "I am certain that attempts will be made to cite the Consent Decree as precedent for an entire industry even though it was the product of company-specific negotiations," O'Rielly said. "Other interested parties had no opportunity to comment at any point in time on the substance of the Commission’s claims or legal theories, but will now be forced to embrace the product of a closed and slanted process that will be portrayed as consensus practices and rules."

The FCC should ignore T-Mobile’s “eleventh-hour request” to change the trigger for the set-aside of reserve spectrum in the TV incentive auction, Verizon said in a filing Wednesday in docket 12-269. T-Mobile last week asked the FCC to rethink the trigger (see 1507010023). “T-Mobile has repeatedly asked the FCC to change the rules for the incentive auction in ways that favor T-Mobile at the expense of the American taxpayer,” Verizon said.

CTIA officials stressed in a meeting with aides to Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly the need for the FCC to give carriers the time and information they need to make informed bids in the TV incentive auction, to guarantee the success of the auction. “CTIA urged the Commission to provide sufficient inter-service interference data, including detailed information on the television stations causing potential interference well in advance of the forward auction,” CTIA said in an ex parte filing on the meeting in docket 12-268. For example, carriers need information on potential impairments “as early as possible, including preliminary data once participants in the reverse auction are known,” CTIA said. “CTIA asked that the FCC release the formats for the files it will provide bidders during the auction well before the applications are due. In addition, the Commission should ensure that its proposals do not sacrifice informed decision-making in favor of auction speed.” The CTIA officials also cited the importance of minimizing impairment of the blocks offered for sale in the auction: “While a certain degree of impairment to 600 MHz licenses is inevitable, the Commission’s originally-proposed 20 percent threshold would result in significant impairment.”

T-Mobile continues its rapid growth, adding 2.1 million net customers in Q2, the carrier said Thursday. That's the ninth quarter in a row T-Mobile has had net adds of at least 1 million and is a 41 percent year-over-year increase, said a news release. Churn was 1.3 percent for branded customers with monthly plans, T-Mobile said. The adds bring T-Mobile’s total customer base to 58.9 million across postpaid, prepaid and wholesale customers. "T-Mobile’s momentum continued in full force for the second quarter, with 2.1 million customers voting in favor of the Un-carrier," said John Legere, T-Mobile CEO. He said on Peroscope T-Mobile’s market cap is now twice that of Sprint: “They have big problems; they have a lot of problems.” A Sprint spokesman declined to comment on Legere’s statement or on whether T-Mobile might pass Sprint this quarter to become the nation's third-largest wireless carrier. “We can’t comment on numbers until our quarterly earnings report in a few weeks,” the spokesman said. “While the media is going to focus on who is three or four, customers don’t care. Sprint is focused on long-term growth by offering customers value, providing a great experience and having a reliable and consistent network.” T-Mobile also unveiled a new initiative Thursday, “Mobile without Borders,” allowing customers to call between the U.S., Canada and Mexico without extra charges. Some 35 percent of all international calls and 55 percent of all international travel from the U.S. last year was to Mexico and Canada, T-Mobile said.